Wednesday, June 11, 2014

One-In-a-Million Shot

Wednesday evening we were talking and Sherryl asked why the pump that supplies water pressure to the house outside hadn't shut off yet. Paul went out to check and came back with his hand and forearm dripping water and was carrying a mango. Our neighbor’s mango tree is extremely tall and we have watched the progress of the mangos in that tree since they were a flower. The mango in Paul’s hand had fallen some 15 feet and landed on the 1/2 PVC pipe connecting the pump to the water line and broke it.

notice the water spraying out

Paul said about 30 gallons of water had already sprayed over the tiles outside. Paul was amazed at the “luck” of that mango in being able to drop so directly on such a small target—certainly it was a 1 in a million shot.

Paul repaired the PVC pipe and we had to wait two hours before pressurizing it. Since the tank on the roof was mostly empty and needs to be cleaned quarterly and the filter changed, we went on the roof in the blazing Mexican sunshine with a UV index of 12. We took our wet/vac with us to suction out the remaining few inches of water from the tank along with the algae and muck that had settled to the bottom of the tank.

this was after we had cleaned for a while

Trouble is that the wet/vac wasn't powerful enough to bring the water from the bottom of the tank up over the edge and into the vacuum. So Sherryl grabbed the vacuum and lowered it into the tank while Paul leaned into that hot tank and we worked together to fill and empty the vacuum about 5 times.

That tank is now clean. Paul changed the filter. We then emptied the 400 liter tank by pumping its water into the tank on the roof and Paul cleaned out that tank as well. Those tanks shouldn't need tended again until October.

Well, on Friday morning, we woke up and didn't have any water—again. Apparently “hermano mango” has a brother who decided to aim for our pipe and he hit it also. Again, our pipe was broken. Again, we didn't have the parts to fix it. Again, we had to haul water into the house. As we told our mango story at the temple, we received a lot of advice and we are sure you have some for us as well. We have been told we should cover the pipe to protect it. We have also been told we need to talk to the neighbor and ask him to trim his tree. What can we say? We thought it wouldn't happen again and it did! Between the times we were to be at the temple, we went to another plumbing store and bought parts and bought extra parts and bought more tubing. Paul fixed the broken PVC pipe again. We learned our lesson and the once exposed pipe is now protected in such a way that even if several more mangos want to try the 1 in a million fall, they will not be able to find the pipe to break it.

notice the mangos still in the tree--just waiting for their turn

We let the repair cure for two hours and turned the pump back on and now we seemed to have gained a high pitched whistle that accompanies the noise of the pump. Paul said it is probably the one-way valve that is supposed to prevent the tank from draining and he might have to change it. <sigh>